We woke early after a fairly restless sleep. It had been rather warm over night and so we left the ceiling fans on, unfortuntately, they are not exactly quiet. Although, they do get quite nicely drowned out by the sound of the jungle insects, one of which had set up camp in our room.
After a short breakfast, we set out for our first activity of the day which was a canoe ride down the river which would take us to the elephant breeding sanctuary. We took a short bus ride to the part of the river where the hollowed out canoes picked up travellers and took them on the one-way trip down the river. We had a short wait as we had hit the morning rush. Not before long, we were quietly floating down the river, taking in the sights and sounds on offer. It was so easy to get lost in this tranquil environment, although a fellow Indian traveller could not resist the urge to communicate this to a friend of his on the other end of his mobile.
I felt fortunate to see my first proper glimpse of a kingfisher. It only stayed pirched on its branch for a few seconds, but long enough to appreciate it. Up till now my experience of kingfishers has been green and blue flashes of something bird like on the Thames. So for me, this was a real treat.
After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the elephant breeding sanctuary; one of only two in the world. It was a simple place with a few admin buildings, a visitors centre and some tall shelters under which the elephants (or hefferlumps as Claire prefers to call them) rest during the heat of the day. It was heart breaking to see these creatures chained up and used to entertain visitors. Still, without the tourist interest the centre would not be financially viable and the species would be put further at risk.
We took a short trip back to our hotel and lunched by the river. Whilst there we were treated to the spectacle that is elephant washing, although, I think the humans might have had more of a bath than the animals!
Whilst watching this we enjoyed a lunch of chips and chicken momo's. This is not a normal combination for Nepalese cuisine, but as travellers with adapting digestive systems we had to be a little careful.
The afternoon was filled with a fairly long elephant ride. As we mounted our 'transport' and started wandering off into the jungle I thought that this was a fantastic way of seeing animals in their natural habitat and hopefully they would be accustomed to elephants so would not be spooked as we approached.
Unfortunately, the western desire to 'snap' the wonders of the world has encroached on the jungle too and it was not before long that there was a group of about 10 of us racing towards each native specimin on offer. We used the available flora to prevent ourselves from being spotted, so the rhinos were blissfully unaware of our presence. We enjoyed wandering through the forest, rivers and finally along the road back to our hotel. All in all a very enjoyable experience, definitely something that I am happy to have done once.
Following our jungle adventure we headed to the second best restaurant in town for dinner, and enjoyed more 'refreshing drinks' and local cuisine.
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